All mole traps require some technique and a learning curve to master using them successfully. I have used most all the available mole traps in my lifetime.
I have used those many different mole traps with good success. Each is a bit different to master. For all the things I look for in a mole trap the Trapline traps have been my choice for commercial mole trapping.
I have caught thousands of moles, shrews and voles using them over my lifetime. All traps, particularly a specialty trap, needs lots of practice setting them in different soil and weather conditions or good training in their proper use to shorten your learning curve.
Productive mole trapping is not much unlike fur trapping other species. You need to learn your tools, their proper setting technique, soil conditions and your animals' behavior. Reading the foraging tunnel sign, or mounding left by the moles and identifying the best and most active runs is key for quick success if you set properly.
Sometimes you can have a maze of old and new tunnels all together which makes it difficult for novices to decipher the best sign.
Using the trapline traps it is important you have perfect alignment of your trap in the center of the mole run and that you have pressed down / bedded the front of the trap jaws down into the tunnel floor. If you don't do this, they will avoid or dig down, around or up and over the set trap.
They simply perceive the trap in their tunnel as an obstruction and choose to avoid it. You aren't using good trap setting technique simply put. Some never get good at setting mole traps while others are better suited for it. It may take years to get really good at this unique skill set and some never get good at it.
Successful mole trapping is a detail-oriented craft. I have had some students that pick up the skills needed very easily while others required much more practice and practice. Some have gone on to make a good living at mole trapping others went back to their day jobs.